Trying something new with my photos for this post!
So of course, the reason why I needed my car road-legal again quickly, was to be able to drive it to this year's R's Meeting put on by GT-R Magazine (and sponsored in part by Nissan as well). Hence the Tomica-like transport I wrote about last time.
Anyway, once I got the car safely back home I was still split about going. I usually don't like going to these meetings because there are so many cars and so you have to park far away, and I always worry about my car being out of sight. I mean think about it - the world's biggest GT-R meet is a great place for criminal types to come check out which cars they can steal next, right?
So I called in a few favors to make sure that I received the proper VIP entry and parking pass (Sponsor) and thus was convinced to take the GT-R down to Fuji. As a result, I found myself driving down with Dino at 0600 this morning to Fuji Speedway. I am sure he takes better pictures - check out his IG for more photos - but once we arrived, I took some photos as well.
This time however instead of focusing on one car or product, I want to just simply upload the photos I took and perhaps share what I was thinking as I took them. So here goes...
Here is where I parked. Bad photo, but immediately to the right is the Nismo booth. And yes that Ochiai-san watching me as I turn around to take this photo.
Meanwhile, someone else is taking a close look at my car already...
Right across was the Top Secret booth, where I spotted my first tuner R33:
Since the hood wasn't opened up yet - we got there before the area was open to the public, I walked back to the Nismo booth, to check out their usual cars:
But then I remembered that social media had blown up on the Built By Legends R33 at Mine's so I took a quick stroll down to their booth, ignoring the other booths. And came across some fans who had managed to gain early entry and were looking closely at the BBL car.
I also noticed it had this shorty type antenna. Mmm, not my cup of tea, I prefer the OEM in my car with its lower profile when not in use.
Here is another shot of the trunk underside:
All dry carbon!
And of course have to check out the engine!
Interestingly, not the usual purple blue Mine's covers but a bespoke green
Dry carbon hood and lip spoiler too!
Here is Mr. Dalle Carbonare in action:
I thought this was cute. A good idea, especially since fuse box covers with the "GT-R" on it are really hard to find.
Obviously good for a car going overseas. Want to make sure you can quickly change the oil each time without having to contact Mine's
Interesting. OEM Plenum in that same green color.
Seats are Alcantara Recaros in a similar shade of green...
One last shot of the entire car...
And then I heard DCD ask me what I thought of this BBL key
My answer - Ok, I guess?
I was more interested in this interior cleaning cloth Mine's was offering. Some kind of super plush Alcantara, I guess?
Now we're talking - check out the Mine's tower bar. Which, I learned later my new friend David later purchased one!
Speaking of friends, always nice to run into Adam, who runs an almost identical KR4 series 3 R33 GT-R! If you have seen me on Facebook you may remember a post where both our cars were featured.
And yes, we belong to the same exclusive ClubR33 owners club!
And after the obligatory selfie, it was back to checking out more cars:
The guys at Tomei seemed a bit busy so we left them alone. But then I ran into the Global Auto booth:
How about a close up of the badge?
Some rear shots
Another angle, trying to avoid the shadows to no avail.
Now here is an interesting machine. Yes, a huge single turbo...
But then looking inside - that is an R35 GT-R wheel with shift paddles - but check out that gear box linkage??!!!
And in the trunk, this:
Fast and Furious, I guess?
We then headed over (no pun intended) to NaPrec, or Nagoya Precision, who specialize in engine head work. Probably the best in the business here in Japan, as all the famous tuners outsource the headwork of their blueprint engines to them.
Here is a close-up
And Dino checking out the 3 kinds of headwork they do: "full squish", "half circle" and "full circle" - in a future post I will go into more detail, they had a board up with some interesting graphics.
It was about this time that Dino started complaining that I was ruining his rhythm due to our conversing and so rather than risk more complaining, I struck out on my own to check out the cars assembled in the adjacent parking lot. These cars are NOT parked in general parking, but are the cars selected by GT-R Magazine to be photographed professionally by the magazine in order to end up in their periodic "Owner's File" dedicated issue.
Here is the first one that caught my eye. I guess 33s being less expensive than 34s means younger people are buying them? And they are more expressive?
I sure hope those are stickers than can be peeled off to reveal that nice Midnight Purple paint?
This super clean silver one had some NICE wheels...
Nice! An Autech! and a Hakosuka right behind it.
Interesting Top Secret car, if it really is one. Color and wheels...
There seemed to be a lot more 33s that before, too.
You can see that white 32 getting ready to be photographed on the right, while the traffic of people arriving but being forced to drive around the backside of the track to remote parking, pass by in the background.
Speaking of which, here is Dino again showing us how long that line of recent arrivals stretches towards a backside parking lot.
Anyway, enough photos for today. It is now 2300 and I am dead tired. More photos tomorrow, in the same stream of consciousness/wandering order!
So what does this sound like? Initially I thought that this was my fuel pump going bad. And it's hard to say where the sound is coming from in this video, although to me it seemed to be coming from behind the rear seats. Thus, fuel pump? After all the pump was replaced back in 2007 with the Mine's engine, surely after 15 years it could be failing?
Well, turns out that I was wrong. Because the sound is coming from the Tomei fuel pump regulator.
This thing. I don't have video but once I had someone turn on the ignition with the hood open, it was clear where the noise was coming from.
A bit of research reveals that with this fuel regulator, it tends to lose the pressure in the fuel system that is always there - about 2kg worth - over time. So after a couple of weeks of not using the car, the pump effectively has to prime the fuel system and thus you get that noise.
So the way to fix this problem is to start up the car every week! Give me an excuse to drive the car around and this should no longer be an issue! But has anyone else encountered this problem? Please comment and let me know, including if you have a solution to this! Thanks!!
So as I mentioned in the first of these Mine's visit posts, the Silence-VX Pro Titan III was not the only Mine's part I decided my car needed.
But before I show you what I got installed, how about I show you what was removed? The guys at Mine's were nice enough to pack up all my old parts into boxes for me.
Damn when did I get so hairy?
You can already tell that it contains "SBC" and "ESC" so:
And yes, not surprisingly, they made sure to wrap up the important pieces in plastic. So they don't get scratched up. Why? Because Japan...
So yes, they removed my old Blitz Dual-SBC boost controller for a newer unit by HKS, their EVC7:
Frankly, I'm not sure how this improves control of the turbos, except the interface seems to be much more user friendly. Maybe more precise control? Although when I picked up the car I vaguely remember Nakayama-san saying something about setting up different boost settings and that he decided that at the maximum boost setting the car felt too fast and so he dialed it down one notch.(!) Actually I found this comparison chart but maybe one of you guys can sum it up for me.
Ok onto more removed parts.
Blitz E-ESC, electronic exhaust sound controller. This was the electric valve I referred to in my previous post.
Note how even the controller is wrapped in plastic. Not good for the environment, Japan!
Looks like this unwrapped, according to the Blitz website:
And here is a video of the effect it had on the sound of the Tomei.
Obviously, with the new Mine's exhaust, this is something I don't need anymore. Removal of this valve -quite heavy actually - saves me XXX grams - and maybe makes up for the difference of the slightly heavier Mine's exhaust vs the Tomei? Not sure what I will do with the E-ESC now - maybe save for the Lexus if I ever get an aftermarket exhaust for it? I see Blitz discontinued it, so it could be handy in the future.
Also, they gave me back all of the Tomei Expreme Titanium - in pieces (it is not a one piece design, like the Mine's is), all nicely wrapped up!
Not sure what to do with this - keep for future track days?
Ok so the exhaust and exhaust value were obvious, given my previous blog post. How about this - the engine bay, how it used to look:
To now, this:
I changed out the OEM plenum, complete with the Mine's crinkle coating, for a non-crinkle coated Nismo plenum. I've always thought this part looked great just the way it is, and by limiting the crinkle coating to the engine, I think it actually further emphasizes the engine itself although strangely maybe it makes the engine bay look a bit busy?
Of course, if the plenum is replaced, other stuff is going on too.
That's right, I decided to replace the old Nismo 600cc single hole injectors with modern OEM R35 12 hole injectors! This necessitated a new fuel rail:
If you look at the Mine's website, you will see that they advertise this bit of kit showing all the fuel lines on the topside - Nakayama-san told me some owners like to be able to show off, when the hood/bonnet is opened, that they have this new set up installed and so opt to have the fuel lines routed as follows:
Hmm. Just noticed the red O is different...argh!!!
Not me, I like the more subtle look of the fuel lines all tucked away.
Of course, with new injectors you should run new Air Flow Meters (some people may disagree, I am just letting Mine's and Nakayama-san install what they have perfected over the years) so these old Mine's units came off:
To be replaced by the modern and thus much more accurate R35 ones. OEM parts FTW, I say!
The black crinkle finish is a bonus!
And with new injectors and AFMs, Mine's installed a new custom VX-ROM for me (I know because Nakayama-san told me about he himself setting it up out on the road). So how does it all work together?
First, I don't know why, but the engine starts up much easier. Even Ochiai-san at Nismo commented on this (yes another Nismo post coming soon!). Second, throttle response with the new R35 injectors, along with more volume in the Nismo plenum, results in very crisp, instant response. To be honest, it was very good before, but I feel like it's even more precise. Surgical?
Strangely, the exhaust still stinks, although not chokingly bad as before. Maybe it can't be helped with these engines but I was hoping for cleaner fuel burning due to better fuel atomization from the 12 holes.
I will post a sound clip of the Mine's exhaust soon, but it is fairly quiet. Still loud compared to the Lexus or the average car, but much more refined and therefore tolerable.
Power-wise, because of the more accurate throttle play, I feel like the car is more lively, and even with the new exhaust, which may be slightly more restrictive, I never felt like the car was down on power. So with better response and no perceptible change in power, (Nakayama-san grinned knowingly when I told him this), I am VERY satisfied at how this upgrade turned out! Although come next year sometime, Nakayama-san is promising me another powertrain upgrade which he thinks will make the engine even more responsive!
There is however one more pre-arranged modification I had Mine's do. I will publish that as soon as the Speedhunters article (working title - Return of Project 33) comes out, which now appears to be next month. If I do not see it get published by then, then I will go ahead and update the blog accordingly - you guys should not have to wait for that to find out what is really going on!
